DCFOUNTAIN.COM

DoD Photo: By Sgt. Curt Cashour, U.S. Army.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki greets
U.S. service members Jan. 6, 2007 in Baghdad
during Iraqi Army Day, at Iraq’s Tomb
of the Unknown Soldier.

As the American economy sinks ever-deeper into the budget hole dug by the reckless fiscal, regulatory and foreign policies of the Bush administration — caused in no small part by so-called “Operation Iraqi Freedom” — this week’s news that Iraq is poised to be sitting on a $79 billion budget surplus by year’s end is understandably raising many eyebrows.

Many Americans must be hoping for an Operation American Freedom to free our own nation from the burdensome chains of this war that seems to have no end. The next president will inherit total national debt of $9.5 trillion, including a first-year deficit of $482 billion according to White House forecasts.

U.S. taxpayers have invested $3 trillion conservatively in the Iraqi war — possibly much more — and that figure is climbing at approximately $12 billion per month.

Besides gross fiscal irresponsibility, Team Bush’s bookkeeping shenanigans such as changing baselines will make the process of restoring fiscal discipline all the more challenging — and painful — in the years ahead. Already independent analysts are predicting that Barack Obama’s tax plan would add up to $3.4 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years, compared with at least $5 trillion under Sen. John McCain’s tax plan. Either way, fiscal conservatives — and the American taxpayer — lose.

If the United States has any hope of becoming financially solid again before emerging global economic powerhouses gain irreversible leverage over our economy, pressure must be applied to the incoming administration — regardless of who wins — on at least three fronts:

• Restore a pay-as-you-go approach to the nation’s annual budget.
• Greatly expand regulatory oversight of Wall Street, in particular the entire mortgage brokering sector.
• Firmly insist that Iraq use its oil-generated surplus to pay for its own reconstruction projects, rather than to continue relying on American taxpayers to foot the bill.

After all, Iraqi self-sufficiency was the pledge neocons promised us back when they were trying to peddle the notion of the Iraqi cakewalk. If only they had prepared us for what to expect when the music finally ends.